I returned to Japan on July 3rd. I am amazed at how the plants have grown. Everything is so green and lush. You can hear various creatures living in the thickets, but you cannot see them. It is the rainy season in here. Everything is wet and green.
I had an interesting physical experience upon my return. I didn't sleep much on the plane or in the airports. Just an hour or two, here and there. I arrived at my house around 10:00 PM. I slept for eight hours, then woke up. I stayed up for three hours then slept for another eight. I woke up. I stayed up for three hours then slept for another eight. When I finally woke up, I was finished sleeping. Completely. I lost an entire day and it was wonderful.

There was nothing in my mind telling me to sleep. I mean, thought was not involved. I only remember saying "I'm tired," one time, and that was just for the sake of conversation. I was not even tired in any traditional sense. My body was in the state that it was in, and nothing more.

I can say that I am tired or sleepy or my arm hurts, or whatever, but I am not sure that any of that is true. You cannot qualify the moment by attributing any condition to the body. You can do it, and people do it all the time, but it is meaningless. If my arm hurts, why would I feel the need to give that state any permanence at all? If it hurts, that is it. It goes no further. Why would I feel the need to resist what is there? That will only attach myself to the state I wish to avoid.

If I have pain of some kind, can it continue beyond its point of origin? If I am in the moment, the "I" cannot continue. If "I" cannot continue, can pain continue? Through knowledge it is too easy to say yes or no. But that is meaningless, as well. If I have not continued, then knowledge has not continued. And if knowledge is not there, can I know pain?

I am seriously asking this: if knowledge does not interfere, can I know pain? You might say, "Sure I can feel pain. I can remember being in pain, and it is very real." But do you only know pain because you have a memory of what pain is? Go through all of this. Please try to see it for yourselves. Do you only have pain because you have known it in the past? Can there be pain in the moment? How could there be? If one is in the moment, and thought is not interfering, can there be any pain? There can certainly be sensations, but is pain present? Or is pain only based on our ideas and memories of what is unpleasant?

I burned my arm in the sun before I left the USA. I can only say it is burned through knowledge. I called up that information in order to type these sentences. But is it really burned? What I mean to ask is, is my arm really in a state that is different from how it normally is? I would have to have an idea of what is normal verses what is abnormal. And those, or any other, classifications do not exist in me. So is it possible for me to know that my arm is burned? That it is in a state other than what it should be? I cannot possibly know that is true.

The eyes look at this thing known as an arm, my arm, and I have no idea that it is burned. I don't even have an idea that it is an arm. Or that it is my arm. I see this thing, I can wiggle the fingers, I can see the hair on the forearms, and I can see the skin peeling off. But is that really real? I see it in the moment, and it is constantly new, so how can I possibly know what I am seeing? I cannot.

I cannot possibly know that any creation of thought is true. Even the idea of my arm being burned. It just doesn't stick. Nothing sticks anymore.